Apparatus for handling glassware



Y L#April v22, 1930 W. S- MAYERS APPARATUS FOR HANDLING GLAsswAR'f File@ Deo. 3o 1922 2 sheets-Sheet 1 Jfmza' ha Patented"--Apr. 22, 193@ WILBUR S. MAYERS, OF FAIBMONT, WEST V'IRGINIA, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGN- BATION OF DELAWARE APPARATUS FOR HANDLING GLASSWARE Application filed December 30, 1922. Serial No. 609,860.

This invention relates to methods of and apparatus for handling glassware and has for its principal object to provide improved mechanism adapted successively to transfer the articles in orderly arrangementfrom a carrier tosome other carrier or support, as yfor example to the belt or apron of an annealing leer. Other objects of the invention will appear hereinafter.

he apparatus preferably embodies oppositely moving devices, one of which is adapted successively to advance articles of ware along a predetermined path, and the other adapted to move in coincidence therewith and adapted to move the articles successively aside from said path, the relative positions of the devices and their speeds being regulated to produce the desired results in discharging the articles from the carrier.

Suitable constructions and arrangements -for illustrating the invention are shown in the drawings, in which Figure 1 is a diagrammatic plan of one ernbodiment of the invention;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the machine shown in Fig. '1;

Fig. 3 `is a sectional elevation on an enlar ed scale, taken on line 3 3 of Fig. 1;

ig. 4 is a sectional elevation taken on line 4 4 of Figs. 1 and 5'; and

Fig. 5 is a plan of the apparatus shown in Fig. 4.

The present invention embodies an endless' stacker belt 10, preferably a chain, carried b y sprockets 11 and 12, and traveling in a looplike path across the entrance 16 of a leer 17,

alongside of a cross carrier or conveyor 15,

also moving across that entrance, and bringing in a succession of the articles 18 to be stacked into the leer. The belt or chain 10 is provided with one or-more detlector fingers or wipers 13 and 14 (Fig. 1), which, when traveling in a direction opposite to that of the carrier, projects over and moves in coincidence with the carrier7 and as it -thus meets the successive articles, Wipes them ofi' from the carrier, preferably ontoan inclined apron 19 serving to discharge the articlesby gravity to the leer conveyor 20, 4which is arranged to move through the leer at the desired speed.

Completing its travel across the leer entrance, the nger is withdrawn from the path- 'way o f theon-coming articles, and is carried back on the-other side of its looped path, to the other side o f the leer entrance, where it is again projected across and over the path of the carrier, and repeats its wiping off function on the advancing row of articles on the carrier. The s eed of the carrier 15 relavfill the entire width of the leer with ware.

They may, however, be so pla'cedor adjusted and timed -so as to deiiect shorter rows of the ware from the carrier, and place these rows at any desired portion of the width'of the leer.

The leer conveyor 2O is preferably operatedcontinuously and may be 'timed so that it will advance about the diameter of one article of ware in the time required to deposit one row of articles ther-een. The speed of the conveyor-'20 may be varied and con- 'trolled by any well known operating' mechanism.

rihe detlectors 13 and 14.- are pivoted or hinged upon any suitable attachments carried by the stacker belt 10, such for example as the studs 22 (F ig. 8) which be secured upon the belt in any desired manner, either in the middle of the link or upon one of the link pins, asthown. Springs 23 for controlling said deflectors have their lower ends suitably connected with the deflectors and their upper ends connected with the hand wheels 24:, which are threaded upon 'the studs 22 and held by thelock nuts 25.- The 'springs are adapted to move the detiectors clockwise at the conclusion of their active strokes to provide a quick withdrawai from 'the path of movement of the oncoming ware and are given the 'desired tension by turning the hand wheels 24:. The defiectors are provided with sizes of ware to be handled. The guide 27 preferably forms one leg of'a channel 28 having its opposite .leg 29 1n positionV to engage the outer ends of the defiectors, which are` yieldingly heldin engagement with said leg by the springs 23 when the deiiectors are returning to ware engaging position.

When each deflector finger reaches the end of its effective movement, its spring 23 causes the deilector to be quickly withdrawn from the path of the oncoming ware, which takes place at the time the arm 26 of the deflector clearsthe left-,hand end of the guide 27, at

, which time the deector is brought into engagement with the guide 27 andrides therel 'i on until the deflector has traveled a littlermore than a fourth of the distance around the z'sprocket. The deflector then moves into engagement with a stop pin at the center as it continues to travel around the sprocket 30 of the sprocket 11 and pivots upon this pin and when clearing the pin it is forced by the spring into engagement with the outer leg 29 of the channel 28. If desired, the stop pin 30 may be omitted and the guide 29 extended to form a stop and pivot for turning the delector backwardly, The several positions of the defleotor in its movement about the sprocket 11 are indicated by the full' and dotted line positions in Fig. 5. When the delector reaches the right-hand end of the belt, its arm 26 will move into engagement with and pivot upon the inwardly curved portion 3l of the guide 27, and by reason of such pivotal movement the deflector will be rotated upon the stud 22 and swung Yinto ware engaging position over the carrier, as indicated by the full line position at the right of Fig. l. Continued advancement of the deflector in a direction opposite to the movement of the ware as indicated by the two dotted line positions over the carrier in Fig. 1 will suc-- cessively force the articles from the carrier until the entire row has been pushed onto the ware discharging apron 19, or onto other means for receiving the ware.'

The detlectors may be timed to meet the first of a series` of articles advancing on thel carrier any desired point thereon, and may also be 'withdrawn from the carrier at vwhatever point desired, by varying the length of the guide 27, which may be made detachable A to permit shorter guides ofthe required.

lengths to be used, thus permitting withdrawal of the dellectors at any point at-whiclrit may be desired to end the rows of ware discharged to the leer.

A supporting -bar 32 is provided for sus! taining the weight of the deflectors when traveling over the carrier, and likewise, a similar bar 33 is provided for supporting the ends of the deflectors when returning to engaging position. The bars 32 and 33 and the deflector guide channel 28 are all carried by a support 35 which also forms means for supporting the stacker belt chain between the sprockets 1l and 12. rlhe belt supporting member 35 extendsbetween the arms 36 and 37 of the standards 38 and 39 respectively, and is suitably` connected with the horizontally disposed plate portions 40 and 4l of said arms as shown in Fig. 2.

The stacker beltsprocket 11 is suitably connected with and driven by a shaft 42, vertically disposed in the standard 38 and suitably held therein for rotation. The Sprocket l2 at the opposite end of the belt is loosely mounted upon a spindle 43 carried by the arm'37 of the standard 39 (Fig. 2). Secured upon the shaft 42, in a recessed portion 45of the standard 38 is a gear 46, meshing with a pinion 47 on a shaft 48, journaled in the arms 9o 49 and 50 of the standard 38. The shaft 48 is provided with a worm wheel 51 meshing with a worm 52 on a shaft 53, suitably supported and driven by any desired power means, regulated to drive the stacker belt at 'the desired speed.

`In order that the successive points of discharge of the articles from the carrier may be vvaried if desired, the pinion 47 is slidably keyed upon the shaft 48 so that it may be V100 raised out of mesh with the gear 46 to permit the gear to be advanced or retarded one or more teeth, according to the amount of adjustment desired for the deflectors.

One or more stackers of the type described above may be used for feeding the Ware to a plurality of leers and, if desired, the additional stackers may be connected with and driven by the rst stacker in the series, as shown in Figs. l and 2. The added stacker belt 55, and the parts cooperating ,therewith to deliver the ware from the carrier 15 to an additional leer 67 is similar to the stacker already described. The belt' 55 engages a sprocket 56 loose on a spindle 57 carried by the arm 58 of the standard 39. Beneath the sprocket 56 and suitably connected therewith is a sprocket 59', also loose on the spindle 57, and driven by a chain 60 egaging a sprocket 61 on the spindle 43, said sprocket 61 being 120 suitably connected with and driven by the sprocket 12 which in turn is driven by the stackerl belt l0. A Y

When two or more stackers are employed,

each with a full number of dellectors adapted ,to discharge warer from a cross carriertoperating continuously adjacent to the several leers, the articles be delivered to the carrier by separate; carrying-in conveyors 62 and 63 (Fig. l), discharging the 'ware onto 13 0 insegne i the carrier at the left-hand ends of the re- "at the right-,hand sides spective stacker belts. For example, the deflectors 64 on the stacker belt 55 Will discharge the ware onto an inclined apron 66 extending into the leer 67, at the same time that the deflectors of the stacker belt 10 are discharging ware onto the apron 19, extending into the left-hand leer 17.

The two stackers described herein may be used in connection with a single leer, to which it may be desirable to deliver-ware lreceived from diifverent ware shaping machines at the same time, using any suitable transfer mechanism for conveying the ware from the shaping machines to c'ross carrier' 15.

Any suitable type of transfer mechanism may be employed for delivering the ware from one or more shaping machines to the cross carrier 15, but when conveyor belts, as indicated at 62 and 63, are employed, the top runs of said belts may be'extended over the top run of the carrier belt 15. In each of these cases, guide plates 68 and 69 cause the ware to be delivered onto an inclined apnon 70, serving to discharge the ware by gravity onto the carrier 15.

The carrying-in conveyor 62 may be driven by a sprocket 7l on a drive shaft 72, connected with any suitable driving means, the speed ofvwhich may be regulated as desired.

The drive shaft 7 4 for the pulley orsprocket 73, which drives the carrier 15, may be driven at the desired speed by the same power means for driving the worm shaft 53 and the worm 52, serving to drive the stacker belt 10, the relative speeds of the stacker o'r stackers and the carrier 15 being regulated as desired, ac-

cording to the number of articles to be de livered to the leer or leers-in a given time. .ln fact, the speeds of all of thel ware carrying devices, including the leer conveyor 20, will be regulated by suitable adjustments of the actuating mechanism or,mechanisms,there-y requirements to be fullilled in the operations of the machines for, depending upon the froml time to time. o

`Where it is desired to deliver the ware to the cross carrier 15 conveyor, as the conveyor 62, and also to discharge said ware into both leers 17 and67, one of the deiectors of each stacker belt may be removed and the remaining deiiectors so positioned upon their belts as to alternately begin pushing the ware from the carrier 15, of the two leers, to

effect the proper and equal distribution of f so the articles to said leers, the deiiector 6ft-being so positioned and timed as to discharge onto the apron 66 all of the articles remaining on the carrier between the two deflectors vcvlien the deflector 14 moves into the full line position shown at the right of Fig. 1.

rllhe carrier 15 may be placed vclose Ato the entrance ofthe leer or leers', so that the Ware may be deposited' directly into the leers by a single carrying-in the carrier. The plate will be supported by anysuitable means and made adjustable vertically for use with articles of different heights, and may be removed in cases where the ware is of a character not requiring its use.

.The inclined. aprons 19 and 66 may be provided with suitable guide strips 76 for the ware, spaced equal distances apart, with su-fficient clearance to permit the articles to pass freely between them when discharging onto the leer conveyors, whereby the articles may be accurately aligned in longitudinal rows upon said conveyors. The strips may either be made adjustable laterally upon the apron to accommodate articles of different sizes, or separate aprons may be provided carrying strips properly spaced to suit the different sizes of ware vto be fed to the leers. The strips may be omitted if desired, as the articles can be successfully delivered to the leer-without their use.

1f desired, the direction of movement of the cross carrier and stacker belts, together with their operating mechanisms, may e reversed, the deflectors and their supportingv and guiding members being properly poaithereon except such as are indicated .in the` appended claims.

I claim: s 1. ln combination with a movable carrier for the.

glassware handling apparatus, the i Ware of'a member movable in a closed substa-ntially horizontal path adjacent to said carrier,'t.he movement of said member being. differential to thatpof said carrier, a dek' flector mounted on said member, and means .for moving said deector o'n said member into and out of the path of movement of the ware on said carrier. y A

2. ln glassware handling apparatus, the combination with a lcontinuously moving carrier for the ware of a member movable in a closed path adjacent to said carrier, the movement ofvsaid member being differential to thatof said '.carrier, a deiiectorv pivotally ini amounted on said member, and means for swinging said deflector about a center on said member to 'projectl said delector intov 4 1,75 aline a member movable in a closed path adjacentto said canrrier, an arm mounted on said member, means for projecting said arm into the path of movement of the ware` on said carrier, means foi" actuating said member in a direction opposite to that of theA movement of the carrier to cause said arm to displace a series of articles from said carrier, and means for swinging said arm in the direci tion of movement of the ware on said carrier out of the path of movement thereof at the conclusion of its active stroke.

5. In glassware handling apparatus, the

combination with a carrier for the ware of a member movable in a closed path adjacent to and in a direction opposite to that of said` carrier, a deflector pivotally' mounted on said member, a spring adaptedto swing said del'lector out of the path of movement of the ware on said carrier at the conclusion of its active stroke and a bar for swinging said deflector against the action of said spring into the path of movement of the ware at the beginning of its active stroke and maintaining it in such position throughout its travel over said carrier.

6. In glassware handling apparatus, the combination with a carrier for the ware of a member movable in.a closed path adjacent to said carrier and having a diierential motion with respect thereto, a deiiects-r pivotally mounted on said member, and means for movingv said defleotor into and out of the path of movement of the ware on said carrier, said means inciuding1 a cam removable to permit its replacement by a Cam of different size,whereby the length of the Operative stroke-of said deilector may be varied'.

7. inV glassware handling apparatus, the combinationl with a carrier for the ware of a member movable in a closed path adjacent to said carrier and having a dierential inotion withresp'ect'thereto, aildeflector pivotally mounted on said member, means for gradually moving said deiiector into operative pos1t1on,'and means for abruptly withdrawing it from operative position-at the' end of a predetermined length of stroke.

Signed at Fairmont, W. V a., this 27 th day of December, 1922. p

' l S. MAYERS. 

